Lisa has loved the ballet since she was three and begged her parents for a My Pretty Ballerina Doll. She used to make up dances in her bedroom to music from The Nutcracker that came on a cassette tape with the doll. She remembers going to Bakersfield Civic Dance Company (now Bakersfield City Ballet) annual performances, Civic Galas, and Nutcrackers as a child. She finally got to fulfill a dream and take class at Civic for a couple years in junior high before whittling down her many interests to marching band, debate/speech team, 4-H (rabbit showmanship and sewing), and theater where she helped work on costumes for Ridgeview High School’s productions. Her love of ballet never faded though, and she continued to attend Civic productions to see friends perform and later as an adult The Nutcracker was always part of her annual Christmas traditions.

Lisa is a former award-winning multimedia journalist. She graduated from Cal State Bakersfield in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Political Science with an emphasis in Public Relations. After completing an internship at local NBC affiliate KGET, she was hired as an Assignment Editor for the station while still completing her degree. She then worked for The Bakersfield Californian‘s niche publications MÁS Magazine, a news magazine for second and third generation Latinos; and The Northwest and Southwest Voice (now The Voice), citizen journalism led newspapers. In addition to writing, editing, and photographing the news for those publications, social media was in its infancy and The Bakersfield Californian news family was among a handful of publications in the U.S. forging new territory in online content including video spots and user interaction. One of the highlights of her journalism career was when her writing for MÁS won two Kern Press Club awards in 2006 for Light Feature and Sports Feature, beating out some of her senior peers at the “big” side of the newspaper; interviewing Emilio Estevez for his work on the movie, Bobby. Even as a journalist though, one of her favorite things to cover each year was Civic’s annual presentation of The Nutcracker and she was one of the first to volunteer for it when assignments were being doled out in the newsroom staff meetings.

Lisa left the journalism world behind in 2008 to have and be at home with her children that she now homeschools. She began taking her own children to the Young People’s Concerts with their homeschool co-op in 2012 and was thrilled that it inspired them to love dance as much as she does. In 2013, she enrolled her oldest at Civic Dance Center and now all four children – Jillian, Ethan, Henry, and Peter – all dance, and the youngest, Peter, even took some of his first steps in the studio’s hallways! Inspired by them and after a 20 year hiatus, Lisa also began taking the adult ballet class at Civic in 2017 as her time and energy allows. She feels incredibly blessed that her love of writing, photography, sewing, and dance could come together in such a dream of a job.

To report any website or social media problems, please feel free to e-mail Lisa at: civicdancebkfld@gmail.com